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Environmentalists Unintended Consequences

In Catron County, New Mexico, aggressive Mexican gray wolves are terrorizing
residents. Here wolves are killing pets in front yards in broad daylight,
and forcing parents to stand guard when children play outside. The threat
has become so ominous the local school district has decided to place wolf
shelters (kid cages) at school bus stops to protect school children from
wolves while they wait for the bus or parents. These wolf proof cages,
constructed from plywood and wire, are designed to prevent wolves from
taking a child. The absurdity of this scenario is mind-numbing. What kind of
society accepts the idea of children in cages while wolves are free to roam
where they choose?

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

A Colorado-based solar company that got hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees before going belly-up didn't just empty taxpayers' wallets - it left behind a toxic mess of carcinogens, broken glass and contaminated water, according to a new report.

The Abound Solar plant, which got $400 million in federal loan guarantees in 2010, when the Obama administration sought to use stimulus funds to promote green energy, filed for bankruptcy two years later. Now its Longmont, Colo., facility sits unoccupied, its 37,000 square feet littered with hazardous waste, broken glass and contaminated water. The Northern Colorado Business Report estimates it will cost up to $3.7 million to clean and repair the building so it can again be leased.

While the loan guarantees exposed taxpayers to hundreds of millions of dollars, the federal government lost a total of $70 million backing the failed company. Unsold inventory which should have been used to offset those losses, including 2,000 solar panels, mysteriously disappeared, according to the National Legal and Policy Center.

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

Gerry, the first article sure looked to be attacking the ESA as much as anything else, the propaganda machine of the anti-ESA appears geared up to be frothing up the fear. I am sure if you looked a little harder you could find numerous articles strongly supporting the reintroductions of wolves and scientifically sound polls which show strong public support. AS Aldo Leopold once wrote

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”

Regarding the solar plant clean-up, why just pick on one recent situation where a private company left taxpayers holding the bag? There are more than 20 "SUPERFUND" sites in Colorado that are much bigger than this little plant that each cost many times more to clean up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...es_in_Colorado). There is a long history of industry privatizing profits and leaving the public holding the bag for billions of dollars. There are estimated to be more than 350,000 hazardous waste sites now and in the future and the estimate cost to clean them up is $250 BILLION. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/accomp/news/30years.htm